Police recover stolen CAT

by Jeff Switzer
A $30,000 construction tractor and a backhoe stolen two weekends ago from two downtown Woodinville lots have been recovered by Woodinville Police. The CAT tractor was stolen along with a flatbed truck the weekend of Jan. 20, according to police.
Employees of Fitz European and Honda called the police after finding the flatbed truck abandoned at their lot on Jan. 22, the same day the report was filed. The tractor was not with the truck.
Woodinville Police Officer Kent Baxter saw a CAT tractor on the back of a flatbed on Jan. 27 on Woodinville-Duvall Road near NE 156th and took the initiative to pull the vehicle over and check it out.
Baxter ran the serial numbers on the tractor and found that it was the one reported stolen earlier in the week. The backhoe, which disappeared from a site near the restaurant McCorry's on the Slough, turned up at a construction site on Avondale Road.
No charges have been filed yet, and detectives are continuing their investigation of the two thefts and their possible connection.